Prior patents disclose brush wire contact devices having a single housing with a machined shoulder and machined axial passages for receiving an electrical conductor and for receiving a plurality of fine wires having tapered or angled surfaces at their ends. Such wires are referred to as "brush wires". See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. of McKeown et al. 3,725,844 issued Apr. 3, 1973, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Brush wire contact components are generally machined from metal stock, and because of their small size the contacts are machined to a tolerance of 0.002 inches or less. A contact which is oversized for any reason cannot be utilized because it may not be possible to insert such a contact into the contact receiving holes of a connector insert for insufficient clearance between adjacent contacts may cause electrical or mechanical problems.
Machining of electrical contacts is expensive and because of the large number of small contacts utilized by a particular electrical connector the connector is expensive. Typically the brush wires, arranged in bundles, are mechanically secured in a machined holder or similar component by crimping. One way to reduce the cost of manufacturing the connector is to form the contact holder and the other components by stamping and rolling them from a sheet of metal. U.S. Pat. No. of Waldron et al. 4,072,394 issued Feb. 7, 1978, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, disclosed a three-piece electrical contact assembly which includes an inner sleeve and first and second outer sleeves telescopically located over the front and rear portions of the inner sleeve. The inner sleeve is adapted to receive a male pin-type electrical contact by spring fingers which form the front portion of the socket contact.
Generally each of the contacts within a connector assembly is removable so that it may be connected, for example, by crimping to an incoming wire when electronic equipment is installed. Ordinarily each of the incoming wires to the connector is attached to its respective contact by inserting the electrical wire into an axial opening, machined at one end of the contact, and by crimping the contact to the wire to obtain an electrical or mechanical connection. The crimping operation is performed by a plier type tool that, when squeezed, applies pressure simultaneously to two pairs of diametrically opposed points in the circumference of the contact to deform the contact into the wire in the contact. After the crimping operation each of the contacts is inserted into the connector assembly where they are retained therein in a conventional fashion.